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I’m glad the days of Fredrick Wertham are behind us, where paranoids found dirty drawings in every nook and cranny. And I really have no problem with the realism in comic art today, where artists take it to draw every zipper and seam in a costume (or uniform, if you’d prefer).

But I was reading Uncanny X-Men #534.1 and came across this panel…

…and I can’t help but think that’s no seam. I have no idea how this made it into a Marvel comic.

Man, it has been a long, LONG time since I’ve done a link round-up, and I have so many browser tabs open these days it’s crashing my computer. So, in the spirit of enlightened self-interest, please help me get caught up.

And speaking of killing comic characters, around the time of Marvel’s dubious “success” killing off Johnny Storm, Bleeding cool posted this article on Marvel’s plan to kill a character every 3 months. Way to convince me that the stories are organic and remind me why I’m so down on the industry lately guys.

Speaking of Marvel’s corporate strategy, BC also reported on their look at their characters as brands. Which makes sense. See also: my post on continuity and canon. I think it’s happening.

After what must have been a huge success with G.I. Joe, IDW is going to continue Marvel’s Transformers series where it left off years ago. The Furman/Wildman issues were the best of that entire run; I’m REALLY looking forward to this. I just hope Wildman uses his style from then and not the current movie-esque complexity.

I wasn’t expecting so many titles to be coming out all at once! Here’s this week’s noteworthy titles.

BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #3 – The third issue comes out just in time for DCNu to take away everything. Well played, DC.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 – And now we get a new Captain America #1 for Marvel to make a cash grab for, just in time for the movie.

DETECTIVE COMICS #879

FF #6 – Of all the titles I’ve been skipping, FF is the one I miss the most. I’ve finally managed to pick up a few of these, but I don’t have all the gaps filled in yet.

FLASHPOINT EMPEROR AQUAMAN #2 (OF 3)

GHOST RIDER #1 – A 0.1 then a #1? Alright, then.

GODZILLA GANGSTERS & GOLIATHS #2 (OF 5) – I really had no intention of picking this book up, because for some asinine reason the title made me think of Monster Island creatures in hats and suits with tommy guns. The real book isn’t quite as solid as Kingdom of Monsters, but isn’t bad.

GREEN LANTERN #67 (WAR OF GL)

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #61 (WAR OF GL)

NEW AVENGERS #14 – I’ve now plowed through most of New Avengers and don’t care for it at all, so it’s off my list. Expect reviews of all the various and sundry Avengers titles soon.

RED WING #1 (OF 6) – This is the book I’m looking forward to the most: Jonathan Hickman’s new creator-owned title at Image.

WOLVERINE #12

X-MEN SCHISM #1 (OF 5) – Yet ANOTHER event. Nothing you know will be the same until it is again! Bleh.

If there’s anything more divisive in the comic community (aside fromorganic vs mechanical web shooters) I can’t think of what it is. With as many creators as it takes to create a line of comics nothing canstay 100% consistent. That’sokay, we’re all human. Stan Lee invented the No-Prize as a way of poking fun at just that thing and we’ve all found our own ways to adapt with the ever-shifting reality of our favorite fictional worlds. But the real problem with continuity is that all of us have different burdens ofacceptability for variation.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen someone ask how Spider-Mancan be fighting the Scorpion in Amazing at the same time he’s fighting Doc Ock in Web or Spectacular. I’ve never really had this problem:comics don’t operate in real time. One issue is probably several hours to a few days (out of 30 in a month) so there’s plenty of timefor Spidey to be somewhere else. Yes, it is an insanely nerdy solution to a nonexistent problem, butthat’s how it works in my head. I didn’t ask for it, that’s how it happens. But even that example shows I buy in to the very idea ofcontinuity. There must be a place and order for everything that happens.

Even with my (eminently reasonable and sensible) rationalization*I’ve been struggling with continuity lately. I’ve set up what I consider a relatively low bar for continuity: I just want to knowwhere everything fits in. Normally this isn’t a problem. We have the DCU and the 616 Marvel U. The Ultimate line is its own consistentuniverse. The Adventures line (along with DC Kids/Johnny DC) is the all-ages line that focuses on done-in-one stories and doesn’t worryabout continuity. No problem there. But then there are books like Thor: The Mighty Avenger, anything involving the Legion ofSuperheroes, or umpteen one-shots and mini-series (like the recent glut of Captain America titles) that feel like they should have a place in core continuity but don’t.

While some of these are very good stories, I want them to fit in.Somewhere. Anywhere! And that they don’t fit into a certain established chronology is frustrating me to no end. Marvel launched their Ultimate line as a means to escape the burden ofcontinuity and start from scratch without making the same mistakes. But now, 10 years in, Ultimate comics are in the exact samepredicament. It’s just by the nature of serial storytelling that a backstory gets built up. The Adventures line is great, and you can missany issue without missing a critical piece of story, but then again none of the stories in the have as much weight, because everything has to be reset by the end of the issue. There’s no character arc. Inaddition, these stories cheat in a sense, because we already know the characters from years of their primary stories already established.As much as I love Jeff Parker’s MA Avengers, they wouldn’t work as well with brand-new characters. To some extent it is by piggybackingon established continuity that he is able to skips the characterization and focus on the adventures.

It’s not just comics in this dilemma. Less than a decade afterSpider-Man finally made it to the big screen, relaunched Batman and Superman movies are looking to get rebooted, too. Where does X-Men:First Class fit in? Good luck figuring it out! Imagine if comics worked like the movies, where three stories represented a burden ofbackstory and required a reset!

It looks like I’ve been picking on Marvel, but stay tuned for Part Two next week, where I finally share my thoughts on DCNu and explain why I’m so befuddled by the whole thing.

*Your reasonable and sensible rationalization is neither reasonablenor sensible because it’s different than mine. That’s just how it works for us comic nerds, sorry.

Wow, there’s a good amount of stuff to talk about this time around. Here’s what I’m looking at this week.

AVENGERS #12

BATMAN #709

BLACK DYNAMITE SLAVE ISLAND GN – Expect a dissertation on Black Dynamite to show up tomorrow, but for now I’ll say this: Black Dynamite is an amazing film, with a cast and crew who really know and love their source material: blaxploitation films. This is not one of the ridiculous be-afro’ed pimps who show up in a comic every couple years, this is the real deal. Black Dynamite comes with my highest possible recommendation. And there will be sharks.

GREEN LANTERN #65 and GREEN LANTERN CORPS #59 – I’m resisting the urge to start quoting The Godfather, but I was happily out of the Green Lantern line until War of the Green Lanterns kicked off. And now I’m off the wagon.

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #1000 – Seriously Marvel, you can bite me with this shit.

SUPER DINOSAUR #1 – The cynic in me says this is a blatant attempt to catch in on the wave of new zany comics, or at the very least Axe Cop. But the optimist in me says it’s a kid running around with a cybernetic dinosaur so I have to at least check it out.

THUNDERBOLTS #156

UNCANNY X-FORCE #8 – Marvel makes sure we know that they’re going to pry every single possible dollar from our hands by keeping their titles at $4.

o hai

I’ve finally picked up a copy of Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1. I found out that local shop I Want More Comics also got their shop one of the variant covers so I was happy to be able to check it out. I’m fairly pleased with it, a slow burn of a first issue that doesn’t explain the origin of Godzilla so much, but does present the first appearance of the king of the monsters in Japan, and explain where his fire breathing ability comes from (not that I’ve ever cared). This is very much a ground-level Godzilla story, taking place from the human point of view rather than the monstrous. Powell is a comic book master, and while I’d prefer a little faster pacing, I understand the need to properly lay the groundwork for the appearance of a creature that looks like it’s going to destroy Tokyo. I have faith he’s going to take us where we want to go, and this title promises to feature all of the Toho creatures, so I’ll be on-board for a while. The art by Phil Hester is solidly drafted (he opted for one of the more feline variants of Godzilla), but his panel layout is incredibly hard to read at times. The way his pages are laid out are reminiscent of how Powell lays out The Goon, but Powell has the benefit of softer coloring to pad between scenes and I think Hester would be well-served to stick with more traditional panel borders for the time being, unless the coloring style changes up.

I was happy to get caught up on Nick Spencer’s new Image title Infinite Vacation, whose second issue hit the stands last week. Infinite Vacation is a service that uses the theory of infinite universes to create an online auction system that allows you to trade lives with any parallel version of yourself, letting you live a life that may have been. Mark is a heavy user, averaging almost 10 jumps per day, and someone is killing him across realities. While that would be a good enough story to provide you with plotlines for years, Spencer also looks at the social and moral ramifications of the Infinite Vacation, and provides an interesting counterpoint with the “deadenders,” the 3% of society that refuses to participate (and the group I would probably fall in with). I’ll have to do some research to find out if this is an ongoing or a mini, but I’d love to see stories of other vacationers, too. This is a lush, well-rounded world Spencer and artist Christian Ward have created in just two issues, and I can’t wait to see where they take us.

Mile High Comics’s web site is starting to show significant price drops of this year’s issues, so that is a resource I’m able to take advantage of now. I’ve updated my running pull list to reflect the new books I’ve picked up, and that’s it for this week. What are YOU looking at?

In order to make up for the lack of comics I picked up last week, Rao has smiled upon me with a pretty healthy release of comics this week. Here’s what I’m looking at.

BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #5 (OF 6) – Despite my uncertainty about the upcoming Batman, Inc, I’ve really been enjoying Bruce’s return to the present more than I expected. And having recently re-read Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis, this is making a lot more sense. (For example, now I remember the rocket in issue #1 was launched in the last issue of Final Crisis.)

BRUCE WAYNE THE ROAD HOME BATGIRL #1, BATMAN & ROBIN,OUTSIDERS #1, and RED ROBIN #1 – What I pick up will depend on either a flip test or the creators involved. Since they’re all $2.99, though, I’m not as afraid to experiment with them.

GREEN LANTERN #58 – GL is back on notice. You’d think a book that puts Larfleeze in Las Vegas would be more interesting.

IMAGE FIRSTS MADMAN – It’s always a treat to look at Mike Allred’s art, and the start of Madman — the book where he made his name — will be a nice place to revisit.

KNIGHT & SQUIRE #1 (OF 6) – I haven’t been a big fan of Knight and Squire in their recent appearances, but I learned to love Paul Cornell from his work on Captain Britain and MI-13. Since that book’s cancellation, I’m really looking forward to this.

STRANGE TALES 2 #1 – The $5 price tag means there will have to be some strong content and extra pages, but the first Strange Tales was excellent, and I’m really glad that Marvel is keeping this one going.

SUPERIOR #1 (OF 6) – I’m growing increasingly tired with the “what if Superman was a douchebag” analogues we keep seeing. I’m giving Millar the benefit of the doubt, but the first issue is really going to have to bowl me over.

X-BABIES CLASSIC TP GN VOL 01 – I only point this out to mention that “X-Babies Classic” is an oxymoron.

Well, Matt’s review of Chaos War #1 won me over. I picked it up and thought it was pretty good. I’m somewhat behind on Herc-related happenings, not having read Assault on New Olympus or the Death mini, but it was easy enough to get up to speed. I take issue with Herc calling himself a fool, as he’s always seemed boistrous but not foolish, but I imagine if anyone has valid insight into his character, it’s Pak and Van Lente. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

It’s tempting to go into a rant here, but I’ll spare us all. Still, the death of consistently smart and entertaining titles like this points to the exit door for me more quickly than the consistent price hikes.